About Rosie 翁宜寧
Land and Family
I was born in and have spent much of my life in California (mostly in the San Francisco Bay area), with four pre-adolescent years in Colorado. I now live in Tainan, in the south of Taiwan.
My parents are both from central Taiwan, and separately immigrated to the United States in the late 1960s, where they met and married. On both sides, my ancestors are Hokkien from Fujian, China and settled in Taiwan during the 16th century wave of immigration.
I’m a 妹妹 little sister with one 哥哥 older brother. Both my parents are the youngest by far of their respective five siblings. That makes me the youngest in my generation on both sides of my extended family.
I mention this because there’s a way that my life has been fated and supported to be one of playful discovery and sandbox excavation. My Taiwanese relatives still call me 小妞, which roughly translates to “little chick,” an endearing nickname that was given to me when I was a little girl, in a way kinda funny for a woman nearing a half century, yet somehow it still works.
翁 family ancestral tomb
Astrology
I’m a 丁巳 fire snake (also a 辛亥 metal pig, 己亥 earth pig, and 壬申 water monkey) and 陰 yin by nature. My lunar hexagram is 63 既濟 and solar hexagram is 54 歸妹. Transformation is the drumbeat of my life, and learning to trust my own tempo—often different from the prevailing one—brings harmony into its rhythms.
Current Landscape
Since this alchemy became conscious years ago, making choices most aligned with mySelf has been my North Star. This journey has led me back to the languages and the spiritual, religious, and cultural traditions of my people. Along the way, I’ve re-knitted ties with my ancestors and extended family on both sides of the Pacific.
I also feel fortunate to stay connected with the Navajo Healing Project, even from afar. Over the past five years I’ve had various roles within the program, which trains Diné interns in traditional Chinese medicine, and now I have the joy of teaching Chinese cosmology. Twice a year, the project brings me back to Dinétah for its free pop-up clinics serving the reservation.
My happiest days are spacious ones—time with myself woven together with moments of eating, playing, and moving alongside people with whom I can simply be. Food, too, is one of my favorite forms of alchemy.
Here in Tainan, I feel lucky to be living this way. I wander morning vegetable markets, spend time reading and studying (I Ching, Chinese cosmology, Taoism, tai chi), learn and practice Chen-style tai chi, and share delicious Taiwanese meals with my teachers and tai chi community.
